Fantastic finish and an “upset.”
by Jeremy Bauman / @JBauman13
The elimination rounds have begun in the FIBA World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey and the competition is really starting to heat up. What makes this competition so great is that in a first round game like Greece vs. Spain that took place today, either one of those teams is capable of making a run in this tournament but one of them had to pack its things and go home. Below is a recap of the day’s events in Turkey.
Serbia and Croatia faced off in the first game of the elimination round and what a game it was. In a very competitive match-up each team saw great contributions from its starters and bench players alike. Serbian Nenad Kristic (16 points, 3 rebounds) got off to a quick start in the lane with dunks and spin moves for easy points while his teammate Nemanja Bjelica (3 points) got it going from outside with a three (he was quiet the rest of the game). For the Croatians the young prospect Bojan Bogdanovic (9 points, 3 boards) got going with a three early and a few nice takes to the rim. Ante Tomic (6 points, 8 boards, 5 turnovers) had a tough time scoring the ball against Kristic inside but Croatia held a steady lead of 6-8 points for most of the first half thanks to their forceful rebounding on the offensive end (13-7 edge in this department for the game) by Marko Thomas (6 points, 6 boards) and the entire team’s ability to convert after rebounding. For Serbia, Kosta Perovic (10 points, 3 boards) was huge off the bench in the pick-and-roll which led to easy opportunities for Serbia in the lane, helping to keep them in the game. They went into the locker room with a 36-34 lead, which they couldn’t have been happy with considering how well they had played.
In the second half Serbia took the lead early on a three-pointer by Aleksander Rasic (15 points, 3 assists, 2 steals). Kristic battled inside on offense in the third which led to Croatia’s prized big Ante Tomic picking up 2 quick fouls early in the second half (3 overall) forcing him to sit down. The Serbs crashed the boards harder and took advantage of Tomic being out of the game but Kresimir Loncar (9 points, 2 boards) did his best to keep the Croatians in the game the whole third quarter by battling inside, hustling on both ends and knocking down a midrange shot or two. Tomic came back in for the final few minutes of the third but Serbia’s Milos Teodosic (3 points, 4 steals, 4 turnovers) hit a three and Milan Macvan (8 points) scored a bucket inside in transition to extend their lead to 4 going into the 4th.
It was neck and neck the first four minutes of the fourth quarter until the Serbs got it going offensively with an and one to extend the lead to 7 points with 6 minutes to play but the sharpshooting sparkplug Marko Popovic (21 points, 5 assists, 5 boards, 2 steals) answered with a 3 to keep his team in the contest at the other end. A moment later Milan Macvan hit a three to extend the lead back to 7 (after Croatia missed several easy opportunities inside) but Popovic kept his team in the game with yet another three after a 2-minute scoring drought to bring the Croatians within 4 again at 64-60. The Serbians missed some free throw opportunities which helped to keep Croatia in the game and after a beautiful drive-and-dish by point guard Roko Ukic (11 points, 4 assists, 4 boards) to Marko Banic brought Croatia within two. Kristic hit 1-2 free throws on other end to extend lead to three but the relentless Popovic drove, got fouled and hit both shots at line to make it 68-67 Serbia with 21 seconds left. Rasic hit 2 FTs to extend the lead to 70-67. Popovic created yet another foul and hit another two FTs. Croatia pressured Serbia and Marko Tomas came up with a steal, passed to Popovic who got fouled again. Missed the first, made the second to tie the game.
Out of a timeout Serbia ran a perfect inbounds play from midcourt that started in a diamond. After a simple screen at midcourt one player was wide open and streaking to the hoop for an all too easy layup for the two point advantage. The Croatians were undone with this play but inexplicably fouled on their possession at midcourt with 5.9 seconds left. Popovic knocked down his FTs again (8-10 at the line) but on the ensuing possession Croatia was whistled for a very questionable foul with 1 second remaining on a drive to the basket by Aleksander Rasic, who went to the line, knocked down the first calmly and missed the second on purpose to all but secure the win in a very dramatic knockout round affair.
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THE GAME: We lost this game because Spain is one of the 2 teams in this world that are basically better than us and we know it. When we play focused we usually win against anybody (something repeatedly proven the last decade) but we can’t do it against U.S. and Spain because of size&athletic abilities. Of course there are other teams that are also more athletic/bigger than ours (France,Puerto Rico,Russia,Australia) but we usually win against them by playing smarter and having more skilled players(a U.S. assistant 2 months ago called the greek team “the smartest bball team in the world”). We cannot do this against those 2 teams cause they combine superior athletisism/size with really skilled/complete players. In the game against Spain this became once again clear since whenever we had to go to our bench in order to give a rest to our best 5 the dropoff in performance was huge. At the same time Spain was bringing from its bench better players than the starters (Spain’s bench was up 25-2 near the end of the gmae…). The defference in athletisism between our guards and theirs,and the defference in size between our big’s and their(especially when both Gasol’s are playing) is what determines the end result every year.To me this team didn’t fail this year cause it didn’t finished for the first time in the last 8 years in the top-6. If we had to go against those two teams so early in the tournaments in any of the previous years the result would have been most propably the same. This is what the players/coaches knew and tihs is why they tried to avoid it by losing to Russia. Agianst Spain we had our best game in this tournament and our team was actually what everybody expected from it. Unfortunatelly in bball (and life),sometimes giving your absolute 100% is not enough. I’m really sad NOT for the loss(i expected it and i wrote tihs also here) but for the feelings that some of our players must have after giving their absolutely all and finding out that it was not enough. I have to make a final note about Diamatidis. Yesterday he had one of the best games of his life. Whoever wants to see why this guy is the closest Europe ever prodused to Scottie Pippen should see this game. His defense is off the charts and on offence he is almost equally great. Being our best/most complete player the last decade (along with Papaloukas) and leaving the team now(we hope they change their mind), basically means that greek bball is entering a rough period for the next few years (the guys behind him, Kalathis,Pappas,etc do not posses that kind of talent). At least both him and Papaloukas (long with Fotsis&Spanoulis) gave us the best 5 year period in the history of our team. All we got to do is to thank them.
But in one stretch he was vastly overplayed by Rudy… with that pump fake when Diamantidis jumped and Rudy drilled a three like a cold blooded killer and the one when Rudy once more pupmed faked Dimantidis in the air and managed to draw a foul by shooting three… But otherwise very much respect to greece and I for one should know how great the team is, since we Slovenians lost to them when leading by 16 points aproximately 3-4 minutes till the end of the game a couple of years ago and then Papaloukas and Dimantidis staged a great comeback… But don´t chear just for the U.S.A…. go for the underdogs… SLOVENIA all the way;))
@Dark….:welcome to the reality of France bball (no wonder they are our loyal ‘clients’ for the last 25 years, although they can out jump/run us any day).
I hope Greece keeps coming strong, as this is more interesting with you guys. And somebody has to stop the US team LOL
it’s still sad those racist coments like the borat one by dacre and some others who don’t respect you and your analisys (a good analisys BTW, I enjoyed it)
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